photoshop tuto_ fake shadow effect

First I open a new imageand use the little boy in it

Click in the lasso tool and choose the magnetic lasso tool because it's very helpful, easy to use and accurte.

Select all of the body and go back to the start point of the selection. You will notice that the selection resembles marching ants, it's like the photoshop tell us "hey!! this selection is active now !"

Now press ctrl+j to past the selection in a new layer. You can rename it with a logic name like boy for example.

Set the background as invisible or you can simply remove it.

After selecting the boy's layer, click on the little "fx" button which allows us to add a new layer style.
Now select  the blending option.

Keep the size and the spread null (we don't actually need these settings) and set the distance as about 20 px.
Most important set the angle in the right direction that refers to the light source. In my case I set it to 117 degree. Finally click OK

In the layers window, a drop shadow effect is added to the boy layer ( or layer3 in the image).

What we want to do now is to manipulate this shadow, So all what we have to do is to create a new shadow layer

Right click on the drop shadow effect and choose "create layer" from the contextual menu

Just click ok.

There we are, a new layer has been created which means that the drop shadow is separated from the original layer.
Now let's manipulate our shadow.
Make sure that the boy's drop shadow layer is selected

While pressing (alt+ctrl+shift) and the left mouse button, move the left top edge to the middle of the boy's head.

Using the same procedure, drag a little bit the selection as shown in the picture above.
the shadow may not be in the right position, so we have to adjust it a little.

Select the pointer then click in the middle of the boy. Try to adjust it using your arrow keys for more accuracy.

Now the shadow is in a good position, but I'm going to decrease its opacity so that it will be more realistic.

Now I'm going to select both of the two layers (the boy layer and the boy's drop shadow layer) by pressing the ctrl key (Just like any multiple selection).

Right click and choose "merge layers". Photoshop will add these two layers to each other.

Now I'm going to change  the background.
First of all make sure that you have deleted the other background.
Choose file->place a cool and logic background image.

Set the size of the background image so it fits your other layer. In my case, I placed this grass image (not very fancy I know).
We have to put the boy's layer on the top drag the boy's layer and drop it on the top of the grass layer in the  layers window.

et voila !!  the shadow looks great on the top of the grass.
Finally, save your image in png format.
Thanks for your attention.
Mazen